A refreshing visit to a Spice Farm in Goa

During my trip I visited an organic spice farm in Khandepar which is situated on the banks of the river Khandepar in Usgao. Before I get into any details I would suggest this trip to any nature lover visiting Goa. We just had 3 hours to spare and we tried to make the best of it, but ideally one would need a whole day to explore this place. The entrance fee includes a elephant ride, a guided spice tour and a traditional meal among other things. Boat rides are also available on the river Khandepar but I am not sure whether that was included in the price. They also claim that there are 65 varieties of birds and other wild life within the facility. I did not do any bird photography here as that needs time and patience and I did not have that this day. Some of the varieties of birds found are King Fisher, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Paradise Fly catches and a few others.

As you enter you are welcomed by the very knowledgeable and friendly staff. One is welcomed with a garland and a tikka on the forehead. Then you sit in the welcome area and are briefed on what is available for viewing. You also get a welcome lemon grass drink which can be substituted with generous helpings of traditional goan feni. All groups get an assigned guide who takes you around the farm and explains the characteristics of the various spices and the flora in the nurseries. We were assigned Pricila Fernandes who was very knowledgeable and definitely was enjoying her job.

We did not take the elephant ride but did see the big fella eating his breakfast. I got in pretty close but got a huge scare moments later. No, it was not the big fella swinging his trunk at me. My camera shutter would not release and I saw some mechanical part in the viewfinder. I quickly opened the camera and saw the mirror had dislodged from its bracket. I calmly slided it back and it has worked well since then.

After having our drinks and a snack, Pricila took us on our guided tour to the farm. She explained every detail of the spices that grow in the farm.

Pricila opening up a nutmeg fruit for display

The opened nutmeg fruit with the mace clearly seen

Pepper plant. All varieties of pepper originates from this.

We were also shown the method of how mature betel-nuts are shaken off from their trees. The trunk of the betel-nut tree is very strong but also very flexible. The plants are also grown in close proximity to each other. The acrobatic worker climbs on one tree and then jumps from one tree to the other.  When on top he sways the tree and then jumps to the other. This way he does not have to climb multiple trees repeatedly.

Here is Anand (I believe that was his name), demonstrating the craft to us.

Anand climbing up the tree

and then launching himself and holding on to the next tree

We then went around the plantation and had a chance to see some unique and colourful flora. This is where I missed my wife Mafra, because if you need any help on exotic plant/flower names, she is the an expert.  Here are some images.

"Bird of Paradise" flower.

A particular variety of banana plant and its exotic looking flower

Baby bananas growing from the flower

A bunch of bananas

A kewra plant

Menino showing off one of his creations

One of the carnivorous insect eating plant

Traditional smokes "beddi" made and sold within the premises

After a good one hour tour around the farm we returned to base for some more feni and an elaborate traditional Goan meal.  

Plates made out of betel palm leaves.

Our meal waiting for us.

As I said earlier this was a wonderful and unique experience. On reflection I felt that these type of facilities could provide Goa alternate revenue streams.  There is a nature loving tourist segment out there that has not been well exploited. 

The cost of entry was INR 400 which translates to around 8-9 dollars. Thats around what one would pay for a unheathy McDonald meal. I really enjoyed this visit and would again recommend this to anyone who loves nature and would like to chill out in a serene environment.

And last but not the least a huge thanks to Arsenio who accompanied me on this trip. 

Cheers.. Fidelis. 

A tribute to the artisans

I said I would blog during my holiday to Goa but quickly realised that it was not going to be possible. I was meeting my siblings and their families after nine years and it would not be fair to them if I started to spend time in front of a computer. I have finally got some time to go through my pictures and I promised myself that I would get at least one photo blog out this weekend.


So here it is. 


This particular blog concentrates on Old Goa and is in  particular is a tribute to the great artisans. The same artisans who centuries ago have done such marvelous work on the various churches there. Over the last sixteen years my brother Patrick and my brother-in-law Arsenio have  restored many of these fine pieces of architecture. Arsenio accompanied me to Old Goa and his contacts and knowledge of the area was of great help.


We left Panjim at around 6:30 in the morning and arrived first at the Tower of the Church of St. Augustine. I will get to those pictures later. As a kid whenever we went to Old Goa we would be taken to the two main churches i.e   the Basilica of Bom Jesus and the Se Cathedral. Arsenio suggested to me that the Church of St. Cajetan had some really good architecture and we went to see this church. 




I got this image of this beautiful church from  another location. I got up to the Church of mount Carmel and got this image. 

I will not get into the details of this particular church as the image below provides the official details.

The interior of this church is really spetacular. I entered the church and went WOW. The main dome gets a lot of light and the rest of the church not as much. At first I thought I would have to do HDR images but quickly realised that they strictly do not allow the use of tripods. So I had to play around with settings and hope to  create some magic in post processing. Sometimes i just placed the camera on the altar and used a remote release. Here are some images.

Image of the main dome.

Not really a great composition, but I wanted to show the detail on the workmanship on the roof.

In the image below one gets the feel of the whole ceiling and the pillars. By now you may have noticed I have converted all the interior images to black and white. Well the interior is all pure white (except the alters and pulpits). I felt black and white really brought out the artistic workmanship inside the church.

Image of the alter. 

After exiting in the church compound we found the gate of the palace of "Adil Shah".

We had started the morning at the ruins of the Church of St. Agustine. Here are the images from that session. As I have said I am trying to highlight the workmanship that went into many of these structures.


Here are the remains of the tower.

The ruins from the original church.

After an little detour to the Spice farm  in Usgao ( will cover that in my next blog), we came back to Old Goa. Spent some time around the Se Cathedral. 


Here is a image of the Se I got from the compound of the Church of mount Carmel. 

This is the interior of a chapel/church adjacent to the Se Cathedral. 

Image of a door on the side of St. Catherines Church. Lots of detail in there.

This is a structural beam inside the museum in the Se Cathedral complex. Even the beam had artistic detail. 

If you ever wonder how these enormous churches where build this might lead to some clues to your imaginations. The original structures were always build with the readily available laterite stone. But these were the millstones that were used to grind the mortar and the basalt to bind everything together. Wonder how many men would be required to turn this thing around. 

And finally an image of the facade of the Basilica of Bom Jesus. Just to display the detail.

And this was a clearest image I could get of the body of St. Francis Xavier. 

 I end with a big salute to all the artisans. I hope whoever goes through this blog entry enjoys the images. 


Cheers.. Fidelis.